James C Corman

Funeral services for former San Fernando Valley Rep. James C. Corman will be held Wednesday in Virginia. Corman died Dec. 30, after suffering a stroke. Corman, a Democrat, represented the 21st Congressional District from 1961 to 1981, championing civil rights and welfare reform legislation. After his defeat by Republican Bobbie Fiedler, Corman donated his congressional files to the Urban Archives Center for faculty, student and public research at Cal State Northridge.

Shame on you, Bobbi Fiedler, for not keeping silent if all you could do was bad-mouth former City Council member and veteran Congressman James C. Corman after he died (Obituaries, Jan. 3). I hate to even repeat the words you used to dismiss Corman's record of public service by calling him "a very far left-wing liberal . . . [and] a very skilled politician in those areas that he cared about: basically, increasing taxes to support welfare programs." Is that really all Corman meant to you?

The Mormon Church hierarchy, reacting to challenges to traditional doctrines about the Book of Mormon from its own membership, says it will not provide money to those who publicly discredit its teachings and leaders. Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, who has directed the daily business of the 5.8-million-member church for nearly 2 1/2 years for its ailing President Spencer B. Kimball, declared last weekend that the Mormon Church does not fear honest scholarship.

Funeral services for former San Fernando Valley Rep. James C. Corman will be held Wednesday in Virginia. Corman died Dec. 30, after suffering a stroke. Corman, a Democrat, represented the 21st Congressional District from 1961 to 1981, championing civil rights and welfare reform legislation. After his defeat by Republican Bobbie Fiedler, Corman donated his congressional files to the Urban Archives Center for faculty, student and public research at Cal State Northridge.

Shame on you, Bobbi Fiedler, for not keeping silent if all you could do was bad-mouth former City Council member and veteran Congressman James C. Corman after he died (Obituaries, Jan. 3). I hate to even repeat the words you used to dismiss Corman's record of public service by calling him "a very far left-wing liberal . . . [and] a very skilled politician in those areas that he cared about: basically, increasing taxes to support welfare programs." Is that really all Corman meant to you?

Even now, nearly a decade after voters in his San Fernando Valley district abruptly ended his 20-year congressional career, James C. Corman still wears his regret on his well-tailored sleeve. "It's just awful to be doing something you love and you think you do reasonably well, and it's all gone in one election and you can't do anything about it," Corman recalled recently over breakfast amid the leather furnishings and cherry walls of the sumptuous office where he works as a Washington lobbyist.

Former Rep. James C. Corman, a liberal Democrat who represented the San Fernando Valley's 21st Congressional District for 20 years and fought for tax reduction, welfare reform legislation and civil rights, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, has died at the age of 80. Corman, who lost his seat in one of the closest congressional elections in California history, died Saturday after suffering a stroke at a rehabilitation facility in Arlington, Va., said his wife, Nancy Breetwor-Malone.

Twenty years have passed since former Rep. James C. Corman served the east San Fernando Valley, but he hasn't been forgotten here. Neither will he be with his death late last month in Arlington, Va., following a stroke at age 80. Corman represented the Valley from 1961 to 1981. A courtly man in a tumultuous time, he treated his constituents and congressional colleagues alike with old-fashioned graciousness. But he was steely in his dedication to civil rights and to the poor.

Marvin P. Gay Sr., 84, who fatally shot his son, Grammy-winning singer Marvin Gaye, in 1984. The soul singer, who added an E to his name when he began his career, had been considered the peer of Stevie Wonder and Smokey Robinson and had 13 records in the Top 10 from 1963 to 1977. Among his best-known hits were "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "Sexual Healing," "Let's Get It On" and "What's Going On."

Former Rep. James C. Corman, a liberal Democrat who represented the San Fernando Valley's 21st Congressional District for 20 years and fought for tax reduction, welfare reform legislation and civil rights, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act, has died at the age of 80. Corman, who lost his seat in one of the closest congressional elections in California history, died Saturday after suffering a stroke at a rehabilitation facility in Arlington, Va., said his wife, Nancy Breetwor-Malone.

Even now, nearly a decade after voters in his San Fernando Valley district abruptly ended his 20-year congressional career, James C. Corman still wears his regret on his well-tailored sleeve. "It's just awful to be doing something you love and you think you do reasonably well, and it's all gone in one election and you can't do anything about it," Corman recalled recently over breakfast amid the leather furnishings and cherry walls of the sumptuous office where he works as a Washington lobbyist.

The Mormon Church hierarchy, reacting to challenges to traditional doctrines about the Book of Mormon from its own membership, says it will not provide money to those who publicly discredit its teachings and leaders. Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, who has directed the daily business of the 5.8-million-member church for nearly 2 1/2 years for its ailing President Spencer B. Kimball, declared last weekend that the Mormon Church does not fear honest scholarship.

A portion of the voluminous files of former Rep. James C. Corman, who represented the San Fernando Valley for 20 years, is open to the public at Cal State Northridge--providing a window into the workings of Congress and residents' concerns during two often-turbulent decades.